This invention relates to a sheet handling apparatus which may be used for loading currency notes into, and removing currency notes from, a holding means.
This invention has application, for example, to an automatic bank teller machine of the kind wherein a user inserts a customer identifying card into the machine and then enters certain data (such as codes, amount of cash required or to be paid in, type of transaction, etc.) upon a keyboard associated with the machine, and inserts into the machine any currency notes to be paid in. The machine will then process the transaction, update the user's account to reflect the current transaction, dispense cash if necessary, and return the card to the user and issue a transaction record slip as part of a routine operation.
Known teller machines of the kind specified normally only accept cash to be deposited when the cash is placed in an envelope or other suitable container, identifying information being written or printed on the outside of the container. The deposited container is subsequently opened and the contents checked by a bank employee. A drawback of such teller machines is that cash deposited in the machine by one customer is not available for paying out by the machine to another customer, and so it is necessary for the machine to be replenished with cash at fairly frequent intervals.
In U.K. Patent Specification No. 1,354,393 there is disclosed an automatic bank teller machine including means for automatically checking and counting cash paid into the machine and delivering into a safe currency notes and coins determined to be genuine. The machine also includes means for supplying to a cash delivery port cash obtained from the safe. However, there is no clear disclosure in this specification that cash paid into the machine by one customer can be used for paying out to another customer. Also, the specification gives no details of how currency notes are stacked in the safe or removed therefrom.